


The Destroyer's Legacy

by Isis



Category: Old Kingdom - Garth Nix
Genre: Charter Magic, Gen, Post-Canon, Wallmakers, Worldbuilding, ancelstierre
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 21:25:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13983621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isis/pseuds/Isis
Summary: “I’m at Forwin Mill,” said the message-hawk, in Sameth’s voice. “There’s a bubble of Charter Magic here, just south of the Wall.  The Dead are rising and I need your help.  And see if the Library has anything on how to repair Walls.”





	The Destroyer's Legacy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Merit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merit/gifts).



“I’m at Forwin Mill,” said the message-hawk, in Sameth’s voice. “There’s a bubble of Charter Magic here, just south of the Wall. The Dead are rising and I need your help. And see if the Library has anything on how to repair Walls.”

“You see why I had Lialle fetch you,” said the Hawksmistress. “I thought you’d want to hear the message yourself.”

“Thank you,” said Lirael abstractedly. She was already making plans in her mind. If the Dead were rising on the wrong side of the wall, she had to get there right away. Sabriel could put them down as well as she could – better, probably – but she and King Touchstone were finally on their much-delayed vacation, and anyway, Sam had sent the message to the Clayr’s Glacier, to _her_. Maybe she should ask one of the Librarians to do the research, so she could leave immediately. But what if the researcher found more information than could be transmitted in the short memory of a message-hawk? No, better to see what she could find out first, she decided.

As it turned out, the Second Assistant Librarian on duty was bored, and happy to help her go through the reference books they had on the Wall and on the Wallmakers. Nick, too, offered his help, and the three of them spent the rest of the afternoon poring through the small collection of relevant texts and copying anything that looked like it might be useful. There really wasn’t much. 

“I’ll send to the hangar to make sure I can take one of the paperwings, since I don’t have a Charter skin ready,” Lirael said to Nick as they walked back to the Abhorsen’s Rooms carrying the notes they’d made. “I’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

“You mean, _we’ll_ leave first thing in the morning,” said Nick. 

She started to protest, then reconsidered. Nick was learning Charter Magic from Vancelle, and he spent a lot of time in the Library reading histories of the Old Kingdom, but really, he didn’t have all that much to do in the Glacier. He was from Ancelstierre, after all, where the problem was. Maybe he could help. And even if he couldn’t, she had to admit that she liked having him around. “All right, then,” she said. “Though I’m not sure my piloting skills have improved much since the last time I flew you somewhere.”

He gave her a smile that warmed her heart. “I was sick and miserable on that flight, but that was the Hrule’s fault, not yours. And anyway, that wasn’t really the last time you flew me somewhere, only the last time in a paperwing – and let me tell you, I’d much rather be sitting in a nice, civilized paperwing than grasped in the claws of a giant barking owl!”

* * *

They flew to Barhedrin and went through the Wall at the Crossing Point, where a driver from the Crossing Point Scouts met them with an army truck pulling a horse trailer. It was a bumpy and noisy ride, but not as bad as when Lirael had first traveled to Forwin Mill nearly a year ago.

“This is as far as I can take you,” said the driver when they were still some distance away. He brought the truck to a stop. “We’re required to keep the vehicles well outside the zone so we don’t lose any more of them.” 

“So you’ve lost some?” asked Nick.

The driver nodded. “That’s how we found out about the disturbance in the first place. Major Greene and Prince Sameth think it’s expanding, so we have to be particularly cautious with the trucks and other mechanical things. The Western Light’s gone entirely dark, nothing works there now. You’ll need to ride from here.”

“How far is it?” asked Lirael. She was still not comfortable on horseback.

“A few hours, I think. Just head toward the end of the road and then south.”

In fact it was nearly four hours before they turned on the road that led to the place where Orannis was bound for the second time. But it was a good thing they’d switched to the horses, as shortly after they’d begun riding, Lirael sensed the Charter around her, growing stronger as they traveled west. She was regaining feeling in the hand Sam had made for her, which had become lifeless and awkward to use when they’d crossed the Wall. Soon they passed a vehicle painted in the dark green the army used, left on the road where it had been when its engine had stopped working.

An odd-looking bird had flown above them as they went by the dead truck; not a bird at all, Lirael realized, but something like a miniature paperwing. One of Sam’s creations, no doubt sent to scout for them. Sure enough, Sam met them on the road. “We’ve set up a sort of headquarters where the Southerling refugee camp was,” he said as he led them to the tents that were set up there – whether they were the old Southerling tents or new ones, Lirael couldn’t tell, but there were clearly quite a few soldiers staying there, and a lot of horses in the corral. “The Scouts came down from the barracks at the Western Strongpoint since nothing was working there anyway. And I think it makes more sense to work from the center of the disturbance.”

“There are Dead here,” said Lirael as she swung down off her horse. She sensed them all around, though they didn’t seem too close.

“We’ve been fighting off attacks every night. So far they’re more annoyances than anything else. But I’m glad you’re here – and that you brought your bells.”

Over a dinner of military rations which made her miss the food back at the Glacier, Sam and their old acquaintance Lieutenant Tindall spread out a map to show her and Nick the situation. “At first, the garrison thought that it was just the usual problem with the wind coming from the north. Then, when it didn’t stop after the wind shifted, we thought there might have been a breach in the Wall. That’s when we sent for Prince Sameth.” 

Sam nodded. “But we couldn’t find any breaches. So I built a tool I could use to find the strength of the Charter, to detect where it flowed the most strongly.”

“Which is here.” Tindall indicated a rough circle centered on Forwin Mill. “It’s coming from here, and it’s spreading.”

“What is _it_?”asked Nick.

“I’m not really sure,” said Sam. “It’s as though we’re back in the Old Kingdom, though – the Charter’s as strong here as it is on the other side of the Wall, at least in a small area around us. It’s as though someone has put a Charter stone here.”

They all exchanged glances. They knew what was buried here – they had been the ones who had done it – and it wasn’t a Charter stone. “We think its influence must have begun then, after the battle,” said Tindall. “We didn’t notice until it had spread as far as the Perimeter. It’s not spreading very fast, but the area of influence is getting larger. And if we don’t stop it, the whole of Ancelstierre will be affected.”

“But is that a bad thing?” asked Nick. “Wouldn’t it just make Ancelstierre like the Old Kingdom? With Charter marks and Charter Magic?”

“And the Dead rising everywhere, and too many people and too much land for the Abhorsen to oversee,” said Lirael grimly.

“Not to mention that our cars and telephones and factories would all stop working,” added Tindall. “For most people, it would be a disaster.”

“Oh, true. I suppose I’ve been in the Old Kingdom long enough that I’ve forgotten how it is to use mechanical things! But that makes me wonder: Why _doesn’t_ Ancelstierre have the Charter? Or the rest of the countries here, like Korrovia, or the other places on the Southern Continent?”

“Same reason the Empty Lands are empty, I guess,” said Sam. “It’s on the other side of the Rift, just as Ancelstierre’s on the other side of the Wall.”

“But someone had to build that Wall in the first place,” said Lirael. She pulled out the packet of the notes they’d made in the Library. “There’s no natural barrier to the Charter here. And we reconnected to the Charter when we used it to bind – when we did what we did here,” she said, unwilling to pronounce Orannis’ name here, so close to the spot where it had all happened. Where she’d lost her hand, and where Nick had died, until the Dog had brought him back into Life. “We didn’t find much, but we did find some information in the Library. The Charter wants to expand, to connect everything. It’s only stopped by great natural features, like the Rift, and the oceans. And by the Wall.”

“So how does the Wall contain the Charter?”

“You’re the Wallmaker! Figure it out.” She pushed the notes across the table to him, and stood. It had become dark, and she sensed the danger around them. “I’ve got to go send some Dead back where they belong.”

* * *

It felt just the same as in the Old Kingdom, Lirael thought. She sensed the Dead and reached for her bells, and the right one found its way to her hand; it was more instinct than anything else, something in her bloodline that knew what to do and how to do it. And it was gratifying to force the Dead to bend to her will and that of the bells, to make them return to Death. 

But this was Ancelstierre. Being able to reach into the Charter centered and calmed her, but she knew this wasn’t right. 

They were not the great armies of Dead that Hedge had tried to create, but there were many of them, and it still took several hours to deal with them all. When she’d finished her task she returned to the main tent, where the others were still gathered around the table, which by this time was entirely covered with maps and notes, both the ones she’d brought from the Library and new ones they’d scribbled while going over the various sources of information.

“Did you figure out what to do?” she asked as she unslung her bells and sat in a chair.

“Maybe,” said Sam. “It looks like the most straightforward thing to do would be to build a new Wall to the south and east, connecting to the existing one about sixty miles inland. It would be an awful lot of work, though, and the Charter would probably overtake us before we could finish.”

“And I don’t think my uncle would take kindly to losing a piece of Ancelstierre!”

“True. But I don’t know what else we can do.” Sam pulled out one of the papers from the stack on the table and regarded it glumly. “The whole reason the Wall’s where it is is just happenstance. The ancient Wallmakers saw the Charter spreading and knew it would just keep going, so they went ahead of it to the narrowest part of the land and had the wall built by laborers. As it went up, they laced it with Charter marks to keep the Charter to the north. But now the Charter’s active here, on the wrong side.”

“Can’t you somehow push the Charter back over the Wall?”

“Not as long as – as that hemisphere is here.” Sam, too, avoided saying what was in that hemisphere of metal and Charter Magic. “I suppose we could dig it up again and move it back to the other side.”

“No,” said Nick. His voice was strained. “Leave it where it is. They will take any opportunity to try to come back together.” 

One of the two metal hemispheres had fallen in the sea, Lirael knew, while the other had buried itself under the dust and ash. Soldiers had piled more dirt over it, making a rough mound next to the blasted ridge that had been the site of the great battle with the Destroyer. She wondered if the Free Magic in Nick’s blood still felt its pull, or if he was only speaking from instinct and the memories he had of that bad time.

“Well, in that case,” she said, “why not build a little Wall around the hemisphere to close it in?”

Sam stared at her for a moment, then his face lit up in a grin. “Aunt Lirael, you’re brilliant! That’s exactly what we’ll do.”

* * *

Lieutenant Tindall had put his soldiers to work. Some were hauling stones from the wreckage of the mill and the old dock and railway, while others used horses and wagons to bring more supplies from the Western Strongpoint. One of the army’s engineers was mixing cement, while another, who had some experience as a mason, directed the small detail who had been assigned to actually build the new wall.

As the wall went up, Sameth infused it with the Charter marks that would make it not just a wall, but a capital-W Wall, a Wallmaker’s construct built from both natural stone and Charter Magic. Lirael watched in wonder as he pulled marks she didn’t recognize from the great endless flow of the Charter, then sent them into the rising stacks of stone. She had the easier task of using her own magic to clean and shape the stones the soldiers were retrieving from the old buildings. Some were broken, and most were covered with jagged strips of old mortar that needed to be removed before they could be laid in the new construction. 

It had been several days before they had been able to start working. They hadn’t the ingredients needed for cement, and it took Tindall’s men a full day to travel by wagon to the army’s depot at the Western Strongpoint, then another day for the return trip. She and Nick spent those days cleaning stones, while Sam planned the construction and experimented with the Charter marks he’d need to use. The notes they’d made in the Library now had his own notes scrawled around the margins. Meanwhile, the men who hadn’t gone to fetch supplies dug a trench around the buried hemisphere. The wall would need to have its first courses laid below ground level.

The Dead still seemed to be drawn to the area, and Lirael had to go out with her bells twice more during the construction. “Will they stop when you’ve completely contained it?” she asked Sam one evening.

He shrugged. “I suppose it will take a while before the influence of the Charter dissipates completely. Like when the wind comes over the Wall. Hmm, I wonder if the shape will act as a chimney?” Sam frowned, clearly trying to think like a Wallmaker.

“We should put a roof over this one, then,” said Nick. “Keep anything from seeping out.”

“A stone roof would take some engineering,” said Sam doubtfully. “And I’m not sure it wouldn’t just blow off with the energies of the Charter. The problem is that, as we learned from those books you found, the Charter just wants to flow. The only way to keep it contained is to layer it with Free Magic, like in the bells.”

“Well, then, you can do that,” said Lirael, relieved.

“But I can’t. I haven’t a source of Free Magic.”

“Of course you do,” said Nick. “Just try not to get me killed this time, okay?”

* * *

The stone building was complete. It looked like a farmer’s shed, except that it was built more sturdily than any farmer would need, and of course, it had no door. There was no roof, either; the top of the building was latticed with metal rails that had once been part of the railway that had brought logs to the mill. 

Tindall’s soldiers had constructed a wooden platform on one side of the building, with a ladder that could be used to reach the top. First Sam, then Nick climbed the platform. For a moment they both looked down into the enclosed space.

Lirael climbed up behind them. There was barely enough room on the platform for all three of them, but she didn’t mind sitting close to Nick, curving her body around his. “Here’s the knife,” said Lirael, holding it out so that Sam could take it from her. “You’re sure you can do this?”

“Pretty sure,” said Sam. “It’s got to be easier than making that sword.” He turned to Nick. “Are you ready?”

“It’s got to be easier than, well.” He held out his hand. “At least you just need to cut my finger.”

They were all silent, remembering for a moment; then Sam nodded, and drew the blade across Nick’s hand.

The stench of Free Magic wafted up, not just from the cut on Nick’s finger but from the pit where the half of the Destroyer lay bound. It was as though they reached for each other, and for one horrible moment Lirael thought that they were all wrong, that this would empower Orannis anew, would undo all the careful work they had done over the past week. 

Then the Charter marks that Sam had infused into the stones began to glow, the way the Charter marks in the Wall had glowed when she’d taken Nick across on his litter, after his encounter with the Hrule. The marks didn’t try to flow into Nick, as they had then; they only danced around the building and the three of them on the platform, swirls of golden light gently flowing by. She felt the comfort of the Charter’s presence as the marks brushed against her. More swirls played across Sam’s hands as he plucked marks from the Charter and pressed them against the criss-crossed metal rails. The light twined around the rails, weaving them together as though the light itself was part of the lattice. 

A gasp from one of the soldiers on the ground drew her attention. All the marks on the soldiers’ foreheads were glowing, shifting and changing. She looked back at Nick and Sam, whose marks were doing the same. Her mark must also be glowing in the same way, she knew, though she didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary. 

And then she did feel something, though not on her forehead. The faint sense of connection with the Charter seemed to be moving, diminishing, as the golden glow around them swirled across the top of the building and vanished into the latticed rails. It was as though the Charter were retreating, pulling away from her, and for a moment she felt a sense of loss even though she knew that this was what had to happen. That this was only returning things in Ancelstierre to normal, and that she’d find the Charter again when she crossed the Wall back into the Old Kingdom.

The last flickers of golden light melted into the latticed roof of the building. The Charter marks in the stones flared once more, and then subsided. Sam blinked, and looked around as though he’d just woken from a dream. “I think it’s done. Nick, are you all right?”

“Much more alive than last time, which is good enough for me.”

“And for me,” added Lirael. “Though I think my foot’s gone to sleep. Not to mention my hand.” She flexed her metal hand, and it was stiff and mechanical once more, without the life the Charter gave it.

They uncoiled themselves from the platform and descended the ladder. “That was impressive,” said Lieutenant Tindall. “Let’s hope it did the job.”

Lirael reached for the Charter; there was nothing but a faint echo. “It did,” she said. “You’re a true Wallmaker, Sameth.”

“We shall see if it lasts. I think we’ll probably have to move it, eventually – I know, Nick, but we’ll take precautions. We’ll have to find the other hemisphere first, and move it north of the Wall and protect it with another warding.” He nodded in the direction of the stone building. “Then we’ll be able to take this one down, and move that hemisphere.”

“Somewhere far from the first,” muttered Nick.

“Oh, yes. By then I should know a bit more about Wallmaking.”

“Speaking of moving north of the Wall,” said Lirael, “we really ought to be getting home.”

“You could ride to the Western Strongpoint, then take one of the army’s cars from there to the Crossing Point,” Tindall offered. “Though they might have broken down past the point of repair by now.”

“We’ll just use one of the old crossings,” said Sam. “That’s how I got here in the first place.”

“Good,” said Nick. “I’m anxious to get home, too. Back to the Glacier, I mean.”

Lirael looked at him and smiled. “Home, then.” Back to where the Charter was, where it was supposed to be, bounded by the Rift on the north and the Wall on the south. Home.


End file.
